Southern Spars today announced it has been appointed to build Emirates Team New Zealand’s boat for the 35th America’s Cup.

New Zealand’s Southern Spars has provided masts for a range of different teams in every America’s Cup for the past 25 years, including the victorious Black Magic campaign in 1995.

The boat, a 50ft foiling catamaran, will be launched early next year ahead of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and America’s Cup to be held in Bermuda from the beginning of May 2017.

Emirates Team New Zealand said it will be its most technically-advanced yacht ever.

Last month, Emirates Team New Zealand launched its first custom-designed development boat, which Southern Spars is also producing the wing-sails for.

Emirates Team New Zealand’s chief executive, Grant Dalton, said Southern Spars was an obvious choice when it came to finding a manufacturer with the pedigree to deliver a yacht capable of winning the next America’s Cup.

“Our relationship with Southern Spars goes back a long way and this will be our sixth campaign together. We are delighted Southern Spars will be drawing on their broad and deep international experience to build the entire boat, with the exception of the beams. ”

Southern Spars director, Mark Hauser, said the company’s 25 years involvement in the America’s Cup and long relationship with Emirates Team New Zealand provided a wealth of expertise and experience to the campaign.

“We are delighted to have been appointed. We will be bringing all of our people, processes, design and technology to bear in building a winning boat for Emirates Team New Zealand – backed by our comprehensive production facility in Auckland.

“Increasing the scope of our prior Emirates Team New Zealand work from masts and rigging to the overwhelming share of the boat is a great honour for us as we continue to diversity as a business.

“The boat will take at least 13,000 hours for our team to build and so we are delighted but at this stage there is little time to celebrate.”